The Cronut, an iced doughnut made from deep-fried croissant pastry, rolled in
sugar and filled with cream, has become the subject of New York's latest
frenzied food fad.

The delicacy has become Manhattan’s must-have treat since going on sale earlier this month for $5 (£3.30) at the Dominique Ansel bakery in SoHo, where long queues begin forming soon after 6am.

Despite enforcing a six-Cronut limit, the bakery sells out of its 200 daily run within minutes of opening at 8am, leaving some frustrated customers tearful and even abusive towards staff.

"One woman legitimately cried," chef Dominique Ansel said on Twitter. "We felt so bad, we looked everywhere to find her the last remaining Cronut." None the less, "it is not OK to flip off our baristas because we are out of Cronuts," he warned.

"I came all the way from Maine to have one", another disappointed customer who arrived too late reported on Cronut.org, a swiftly established fan website. "And to visit my daughter," she added.

Mr Ansel, an award-winning pastry chef from Paris, said he tried 10 different recipes before finding the perfect blend of laminated croissant pastry to be shaped into rings and fried in grapeseed oil.